One special dish to mention is ca loc (snakehead fish) from the food stall of Ba Ut Mien.

“We do raise these ca loc in captivity, but we feed them with live fish, so the meat is just superb,” she said.

In Vietnam, wild animals are believed to boast better meat quality than farmed ones. In other words, the meat from chickens, pigs, or fish living in the wild can put to shame that from battery farming.

To explain the quality of her fish stock, she emphasized that even wild fish are not always the best, especially the snakehead fish whose meat turns tough and loses taste around April and May.

“Fish kept in captivity here are even better as they actually came from Tonle Sap,” she added.

Tonle Sap, literally ‘the great lake,’ is a huge freshwater lake circled by five provinces in Cambodia.

“After cleansing the fish, I’ll dip it in a liquid of lemon juice and salty cold water. This should increase the firmness of the meat. Then the product can be stored for months in the freezer.”

Ba Ut Mien was Cambodian by nature, but her family had resettled in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam by 1970, only to move back home five years later.

The Khmer Rouge dictatorship in Cambodia around 1979 was so harsh that her family had to flee their homeland.

This time they came to Ho Chi Minh City, together with many of their Cambodian fellows.Another specialty originating in Cambodia to mention ishu tieu, or pork noodle soup.

To the Saigonese, the term Nam Vang was the Vietnamese way of saying Phnom Penh in the past, and hu tieu Nam Vang (or Phnom Penh Pork Noodle Soup) is quite a popular dish.

A 60-year-old woman selling it in this market claims that her version of hu tieu Nam Vang is 100 percent Phnom Penh style.

Her name is Giau, which translates to richness, and she named her restaurant Phu Qui, or wealth.

“My name’s Giau, but I’m not rich at all although I’ve been selling hu tieu for 40 years!” she joked.

For sweet teeth, the sweet soup sold right in the middle of the market should be much loved.

The 70-year-old owner of the place, Huynh Thi Huoi, came to Ho Chi Minh City with her family in the 1970s.